Talk about improbable odds. The guns used in the Pentagon and Las Vegas courthouse shootings came from the police and court system in Memphis, Tennessee.

John Patrick Bedell’s gun originated with police in Tennessee.

“Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters.”

The Associated Press offers the following lame explanation: “The use of guns that once were in police custody and were later involved in attacks on police officers highlights a little-known divide in gun policy in the United States: Many cities and states destroy guns gathered in criminal probes, but others sell or trade the weapons in order to get other guns or buy equipment such as bulletproof vests.”

The two events in question were exploited to push for more stringent gun control and a more robust stance against so-called homegrown terrorism. The latter argument was made in the case of the Pentagon shooter. The corporate media had to later admit — after a barrage of misleading and sensationalistic headlines — that the man involved was mentally ill, not a gun-toting rightwing extremist who was associated with the Ludwig Von Mises Institute.

“I just think it’s unseemly for police departments to be selling guns that later turn up,” John Timoney, who led the Philadelphia and Miami police departments and served as New York’s No. 2 police official, told the Associated Press.

It apparently did not occur to Mr. Timoney or the Associated Press that this “coincidence” is highly suspicious and needs further investigation instead of being used as another threadbare argument for attacking the Second Amendment.